From The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Tuttle Co., Marble City Press, Rutland, VT., 1929, page 189:
THE DAVID R. CAMPBELL LEGACY FUND AND ITS DONOR–OTHER BENEFACTIONS
A century ago at this time there was a young man named David R. Campbell, clerking in the general counntry store of Hall & Goodridge, in Mammoth Block on the south side of the Square (now occupied by J. J. Fenton & Co.), who did things in later years that have caused him to be remembered with gratitude by thousands, and will so continue in the years to come. He gave to his native town of Rockingham $20,000 to be invested, and the income to be devoted annually to relieving the needs of the poor. In addition he gave an aggregate of $48,000 to nine other towns in this section of Windham and Windsor counties for similar purposes. The Rockinggam gift is invested at 5% interest and the income is devoted by the trustees to the relief of needy persons who are not town charges. Last year's report shows 34 different families and persons of this town assisted to the amount of $842.38, and a balance left over for future use. The fund is known as the "David R. Campbell Legacy Fund," and the distribution is made by three trustees elected by the town annually.
Mr. Campbell was born on a farm in the north part of the town April 25, 1794. His education was in the common schools of the town, supplemented by a few terms at Chester Academy. He taught school several years, the last term being in Bellows Falls in the old brick school house then located on Westminster Street near where the Gates garage is now. He was then emmployed several years in the Hall & Goodridge store, thus [190] beginning about 1823 a mercantile career in which he amassed a comfortable fortune in the later years of his life. In 1832 he went to Boston and became a member of the firm of Charles Valentine & Co., on South Market Street, extensive dealers in salted provisions, having large slaughtering works at Alton, Ill. In 1854 he withdrew from the firm and spent the remainder of his life, 31 years, in the family of a nephew, Col. Hiram Harlow of Windsor, who was for many years the superrintendent of the Vermont State Prison. He never marrried, and his death occurred at the Harlow home February 19, 1885, at the advanced age of 92.
He was a tall, well formed old man, slightly stoopping, face clean shaven, and with "banged hair" that was only slightly gray; he became a familiar figure upon the streets of Windsor. Recollections of those who knew him, letters written by him to the writer of this, and all other sources of information indicate this benefactor of this and neighboring towns to have been a peculiarly kind-hearted man, with a beautiful nature, always noted for his strict integrity and honesty. Just before his death, a Boston paper gave an account of his returning to a tailoress who had made him a coat 50 years before, the amount of the bill and 50 years' interest added thereto. The bill amounted to only "threepence," and when he'd gone to pay it 50 years before she had not been in. As they both soon left town he failed to settle, but he always bore it in mind and paid it to her the first time he saw her, after a lapse of fifty years.
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The other towns to which Mr. Campbell made simiilar but smaller gifts were Windsor, Grafton, Westminsster, Athens, Chester and Springfield while he lived, and by his will to Baltimore, Weathersfield, West Windsor and Hartland.
A similar gift of a smaller amount, and for the same purposes, was made to the Village of Bellows Falls in 1895 by Luther G. Howard, many years a well known hardware dealer here, as a perpetual memorial to his deceased wife. The amount was $10,000. It is held by trustees in the same manner, and known as the "Sarah Burr Howard Fund."
In April, 1901, the heirs of Dr. Daniel Campbell and John Robertson, earlier leading residents of the town, presented to Rockingham an expensive town clock of the Seth Thomas make, and a bell connected there-with. These were placed in the tower of the opera house block in Bellows Falls, and bore the following inscription; "Presented to the town of Rockingham in memory of Daniel Campbell and John Robertson, by the!r heirs, April, 1901.'" This clock was destroyed by the fire of May 10, 1925, but the bell was saved. The town voters authorized the selectmen to expend $3,000 for another clock to be placed in the tower of the new town hall completed in September, 1927, and it was done, but before the $3,000 was paid they received a check for that amount, to be used for the purpose, from Hon. Charles N. Vilas, a wealthy and public-spirited citizen of our neighboring village of Alstead, N. H. The bell given by the Campbell and Robertson heirs is the one still in use in the new tower, and bears the above inscription.
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In 1905 Andrew Carnegie, the noted philanthropist, notified the town he would give it $15,000 with which to erect a library building, if it would furnish a suitable site for it. This was done and the building now in use for the purpose on Westminster Street was built as a result.